


Jump

by Rennix



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Gen, Inspired by Art, Iron Man 1 Compliant, Light Angst, Wings, or something like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 09:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14589621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rennix/pseuds/Rennix
Summary: He needs to jump, knows he has to.





	Jump

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by hello-shellhead's art which can be seen [here](http://hello-shellhead.tumblr.com/post/167599859081/tony-standing-on-a-cliff-contemplating-whether-he)

The waves crashed down below, gnawing and biting at the cliffside as Tony looked down.

(The waves looked like they wanted to swallow him up, swallow him like the water he had swallowed as they held him under.)

Tony took a small step back, gauntlet covered hand clenching and whirring as the sea breeze blew back his hair. It was still a prototype, incomplete and unreliable.

Incomplete like Tony, and unreliable like his back.

Obie had said he needed to rest, needed time to get his bearings. The media said he was losing it, lost to nightmares and PTSD.

(Tony would never confirm nor deny their claims.)

Fire colored feathers brushed against his left arm absorbing and breathing in the last rays of sun, while gold and red metal gleamed and remained cold on his right.

Afghanistan took more than just Yinsen, took more than Tony’s own belief in him. Tony had escaped though; escaped with a bastardized version of a wing that had almost torn his back up as much as the ten rings had.

Yinsen had been the one to cut his wing, clean and efficient - or as clean and efficient as he could while assault rifles were aimed at his head. It has been as much as a power statement as it had been a way to assure the ten rings Tony wouldn’t be able to escape.

_See this? Look at what we took - look at what we can do - and you are powerless to stop us._

In the end, after it had all been said and done, Tony hadn’t blamed Yinsen, not when the man’s own back had been far worse - mahogany brown wings now mangled with edges burnt.

The sun lowered further behind the horizon, and the urge to jump, to _try_ , screamed inside his head. He had worked relentlessly to make sure the man-made wing on his back would work and respond just as well as his real one. It was the first of its kind, a shining light at the end of the tunnel for people that saw no more hope after losing their own.

Jarvis was insistent on waiting - _the fabrication is almost complete_ \- he wanted to be sure that if the wing failed, Tony would have backup to get him back on his feet and safely on the ground.

The waves pound against the cliff side. His free hand is clammy, and his stomach is in knots. _Come on, do it_. He needs to jump, knows he has to.

(It’s at this moment that he knows he can’t.)

He sucks in a breath of the salty air, his legs feel weak, and his head is light. He stumbles back, staggering down until he’s seated on the ground.

 

Seems he lost a lot more than just his wing in that cave - seems to be that he lost his courage too.

**Author's Note:**

> A small drabble. But hey, I posted something!!  
> This has also been sitting in my files since hello-shellhead posted the piece that inspired this. Whoops.
> 
> (low key the ending was meant to be happier, but IW has numbed me since I saw it so y'know)


End file.
